His staff clattered to the floor as he fell to his knees beside me. "Felicia! Oh, god. What the hell did Maximus do to you? That son of a bitch!"
She gripped his shirt with a pale hand already darkening with infection. "Adam?" She smiled. Shuddered and gasped. "Brother, you're here?"
"For you, sis. I came for you."
"You—you finally came for me." A tear trickled down her cheek.
Tears poured down Adam's face. He bent over his sister and hugged her tight as agonized cries tore from his throat. "All my fault. All my fault. Don't leave me, Felicia. Please don't die."
She sucked in a breath as her body bucked with spasms. "You have to kill me. No choice."
"Isn't there anything we can do?" I asked Michael. "Some kind of Templar cure?"
He looked on, his eyes troubled. "I'm sorry."
Elyssa appeared in the doorway, holding Meghan in her arms. She set her down. "She's over there. Please try to help."
Meghan knelt, placing a hand over Felicia's forehead. Eyes full of tears, she looked at Adam and shook her head. "There is no cure. Nothing I can do."
"Can my blood do anything?" I asked. "Like it helped Stacey with the hellhound venom?"
"I'm afraid not," Meghan said. She wiped the moisture from her eyes and took Felicia's hand.
"Take care of my brother," Felicia said. "Marry him and keep him out of trouble. He's a handful."
Meghan sniffed and nodded. "I will."
"He'll blame himself. Always does." Felicia sucked in a harsh breath. "Not his fault. I…made choices."
"I should have been there for you," Adam said.
"Love you anyway," she said, panting as pain filled her eyes.
Wiping away the cloud of moisture in my own eyes, I stood up and walked away, anger boiling within. Why had I let her go off by herself? Why hadn't I insisted she stay with me and Katie? Wasn't there someone who could stop this infection? Cure her?
Daelissa!
The insane angel somehow prevented Templars from succumbing to the virus. Could she cure them? The question was moot. She didn't give a crap about saving anyone, only about restoring the rule of her people by any means necessary. But there was another person who might be able to help. First, I'd have to find her. I looked at Felicia's slim figure, writhing as it battled the vampling curse, losing inch by inch.
"Meghan." I touched her shoulder and pulled her aside to leave Adam still hugging his sister.
"Yes, Justin?" She wiped her red nose with a tissue.
"I think—hope—I know someone who can cure her."
She shook her head. "It's not possible, Justin. We've tried to find a cure in the past, but it just doesn't exist. The vampling curse is the blackest part of the vampire curse, dark and ancient magic far beyond arcane knowledge."
"If Daelissa can inoculate Templars against it, maybe she can heal the virus."
"After what you've uncovered about her, why would she help?" Meghan shook her head. "She's mad."
"No, not her. There's another."
Meghan's eyes widened. "The dark angel?"
"Nightliss."
The Arcane considered this information for a moment. "She helped you defeat Vadaemos. She's very powerful."
"I think she can cure Felicia, but I need time to find her."
Meghan's eyes narrowed. "Why would Nightliss leave you? If she's so powerful, why isn't she here helping right now? Do you know how many lives we could have saved?"
"I get the feeling there's a lot more going on than just me," I said. "It took everything she had the last time she helped. For all I know, she's recovering."
A sigh escaped her lips. "Well, whatever her reasons, I hope they're good ones. All I can give you is more time." Meghan looked at Felicia and shook her head. "But it won't be much. Days at most." She gripped her wand and seemed to steel herself with a deep breath. "I'd better do it now."
I walked over to Adam and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We might have a chance at beating this." I took Felicia's hand in mine and offered her a hopeful smile. "I'm going to find Nightliss. Just hang in there, okay?"
"You really think there's a chance?" Felicia asked, hope rising in her pained voice.
I squeezed her hand. "There's always hope."
Meghan waved me and Adam away, kneeling behind Felicia, and putting the petite vampire's head in her lap. Murmuring in a low voice, she stroked the wand through the air over Felicia's body while the rest of us stood and watched. A gentle white glow settled around Adam's sister, and her convulsing body went limp and relaxed, eyes